Mechanical Behavior of Lightweight Ceramics Based on Sintered Hollow Spheres

A simple micromechanical model, describing the Young's modulus, fracture toughness, and density of a lightweight ceramic structure produced by the sintering of hollow spheres and based on shell theory, was developed. The approach combined an analysis of the elastic deformation using shell theory and a simple analysis of the densification in terms of the micro‐structural parameters. The results were compared with experimental data for materials produced by the sintering of hollow glass spheres and gave reasonable to good agreement, especially in the prediction of the nonlinear variation of Young's modulus and fracture toughness with density. The model should provide a useful basis for rationalizing the relation between mechanical properties and fabrication procedure for such materials.